Ettore Sottsass (1917–2007) is most often associated with his iconic red Olivetti Valentine typewriter from the 1960s and the Postmodern Milan-based Memphis Group he founded in the 1980s. In the 1990s, he was one of a group of Italian designers and architects MaruTomi commissioned to design tabletop items that would allow the company to explore creating modern resin versions of urushi, traditional Japanese lacquerware.